Dragaera

Vlad's not a Jhereg at heart

Thu Mar 24 08:32:29 PST 2005

>Since they've already gone after Morollan once, even though he's had 
>Blackwand for 200+ years or so, that argues that either they (House 
>Jhereg) don't really know what a GW is, or they discount what it can do 

I'd say it means that they know exactly what it is and what it's capable of.
Notice that when they made Morollan unrevivifiable, they kept him intact.
They didn't try to destroy his soul and they didn't mutilate his body in
various ways that might have achieved the same end. They used sorcery to
insure that it was not possible to reconnect the soul to the body AND to
insure that there wouldn't be an attempt to create him a new body. We don't
know much about the process used by a Great Weapon to store its owners soul
but it may well be that the rules of revivification apply regardless. If you
can't provide a body to reanimate within three days then the soul becomes
irretrievable. 

Knowing that Vlad has a Great Weapon won't make them leave him alone. It'll
just make them find a way to kill him and then give him the same treatment
they gave Morollan.

However he comes to a truce with House Jhereg, it has to be done in a way
that makes it clear that it was a one-time occurrence. I imagine that the
Council would even accept the appearance of failure if the result is a
general recognition that no-one else would ever be able to duplicate Vlad's
actions. 

I imagine a scene something like this:

Shiv and K'natch'n are making collections for the week. K'natch'n loiters
outside eyeing the passing ladies while Shiv enters the cleaner to collect
the week's earnings. When Shiv comes out a few minutes later, K'natch'n
holds out a purse and Shiv drops 20 imperials into it. "What's the take?",
he asks. K'natch'n weighs the bag expertly. "500 imperials, I'd say. Not bad
given how things have been lately." Shiv stretches and, looking nonchalant,
says "500 imperials would buy a lot of fun in Candletown." K'natch'n snorts.
"Who do you think you are, Vlad Taltos? Mirask would carve you into bits and
feed them to the orca when he caught you." "Hey!", Shiv says. "I'm just
sayin', I didn't mean anything by it. Let's get this done. I'm ready for a
night out." "Sure" says K'natch'n, making a note to tell Mirask that me
might want a new button man soon.